ISLAMABAD: On the directives issued by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the government of Balochistan province on Sunday formed a nine-member task force to extinguish a fire that has engulfed the world's largest pine nut forest in southwest Pakistan, the provincial forest department said.
Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country to extreme weather caused by climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by environmental NGO Germanwatch. Temperatures have peaked at 51 degrees Celsius in parts of Pakistan in recent days, leaving the poor and vulnerable struggling to beat the heat in the impoverished country.
Three people have so far been killed in the fire that first broke out on May 9 in parts of the Koh-e-Sulaiman mountain range, home to the world’s largest pine nut forest, annually producing about 640,000 kilograms of the edible seed.
“With the prior approval of the worthy Chief Secretary Balochistan, the following Task Force is hereby notified for Forest Fire Control and Rescue Operations at District Sherani,” the Balochistan Forest and Wildlife Department said in a notification.
The task force will be headed by the secretary of the Balochistan Forest and Wildlife Department, it added.
On Saturday, PM Sharif was presented a report on the progress of the operation to control the fire on the Koh-e-Sulaiman mountain range, which connects the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
An emergency has been imposed in Sherani district and a control room set up to oversee the operation, according to the report. Several teams comprising over 300 personnel are busy taking part in the operation to control the inferno in Zarghoon Zawar, Shergai, Torghar and Takai areas.
The national and provincial disaster management authorities have provided rescue vehicles and firefighting equipment, while the Pakistan Army has established a base camp in the area and provided two helicopters to assist in the firefighting operation.
Last month, the S&P Global financial information and analytics firm published a report, stating Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India’s exposure to wildfires, floods, major storms and water shortages meant South Asia has 10-18 percent GDP at risk, roughly treble that of North America and 10 times more than the least-affected region, Europe.
As per a report by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank last year, around 5 million people in Pakistan may be exposed to extreme river floods by 2035–2044, and a potential increase of around 1 million annually exposed to coastal flooding can be expected by 2070–2100.
Last week, outrage followed on social media in Pakistan after videos of a few Pakistani TikTok stars went viral, in which they had started deliberate forest fires to garner views.
